Nathan: Hi, I’m Nathan from the DVCC and today I’m here with Josh. Josh, how are you?
Josh: I’m very good thanks, Nathan.
Nathan: Good. Today we’re going to be discussing the benefits of fish oil. So, Josh, could you give me a brief overview on the main benefit of fish oil?
Josh: There are quite a few benefits to fish oil; the one that will be relevant to most people listening to this is fish oil can actually help you lose body fat.
Nathan: Ok – how would fish oil help you to lose body fat? What does it do to the body that makes you burn fat more efficiently?
Josh: A number of things; fish oil is an Omega 3 healthy fat. Typically in the Western diet, we have a high ratio of Omega 6 fat, things like vegetable oils, in our diet – as much as about 16:1 Omega 6 to Omega 3; we want to drastically reduce that by about 90%.
Omega 3 fish oil will make you more sensitive to insulin; insulin is the hormone that regulates fat storage or blood sugar storage. If you’re not sensitive to insulin, you can end up storing sugar as body fat rather than storing it as muscle glycogen, which would be a far more productive way to use the energy.
Nathan: So becoming more sensitive to insulin, would you say, if you were to have something after training, something like a bowl of quinoa, you’d be more likely to store it inside your muscle tissue rather than fat, is that what you’re saying?
Josh: That’s exactly right
Nathan: Awesome. What’s another benefit of fish oil? I believe it lowers your blood pressure?
Josh: Yes, that’s right. There have been numerous studies to show that it lowers not only blood pressure but also affects the way you deal with stress as well, so it can reduce that.
Nathan: Awesome. So with your blood pressure lowering it also helps you to prevent, or reduce the risk in fact, of many diseases.
Josh: Yes, it’s true, along with lowering your blood pressure, it’s a good supplement to take if you do have high blood pressure. But there have been numerous studies to show that fish oil has benefits on almost every disease known to man.
Nathan: Awesome. So, say if I wanted to take a fish oil, what should I do, should I just run down to my local Tesco or Sainsbury’s and just buy some fish oil from there? What kind of fish oil would I be looking for?
Josh: You want fish oil that is, ideally, pharmaceutical grade; the reason being that, with supplements and with your health, you get what you pay for.
So things that you’d find in your local supermarket would have impurities and toxins, which won’t be good for you, obviously. And the actual ratio of active ingredients in the fish oil, which are EPA and DHA, won’t be sufficient to actually elicit any kind of noticeable benefit to you.
So what I recommend is sourcing fish oil that is pharmaceutical grade and very, very high in EPA and DHA. It doesn’t necessarily matter whether you prefer that in liquid or capsule form, I’ve taken both. At the minute I prefer to take fish oil liquid, but that’s just a personal preference. But you want to make sure it’s very high in those two active ingredients.
Nathan: Another thing that fish oil can be good for is reducing inflammation. Who might that be beneficial for?
Josh: Everyone, essentially, it would be beneficial for, to lower inflammation.
Nathan: Inflammation can cause stress, which can cause fat storage in the long term, right?
Josh: Yes, of course, and actually a lot of scientific research has now shown that inflammation is one of the leading causes of fat gain.
Nathan: So that’s another massive reason why you should take fish oil.
So, have you got anything else you want to add on the subject of fish oil while we’re here?
Josh: No, it’s just that I would encourage people to actually look into it; it’s one of the supplements that I’ve found the most benefit from taking. You will only see the benefits once you try it yourself; it’s a very, very good thing to do and there is actually no-one who wouldn’t benefit from taking it.
So my advice would be to go out and source a good high quality fish oil and reap the benefits.
Nathan: Awesome. So if we can just recap those gains that you can get from taking fish oil, it was increased insulin sensitivity…
Josh: Yes, so you will lose body fat; decreased inflammation; it can help you put on muscle tone by becoming more sensitive to insulin; it will lower your stress; it can improve cardio vascular health and will just generally improve your immune system.
Nathan: So there’s no reason not to take fish oil; it’s all very beneficial for you. Josh, thank you very much for taking the time to speak to me today.
Josh: It’s a pleasure.
Nathan: And if you’ve been listening to this Podcast and you find it interesting or beneficial, please leave a comment below. If you’d like to find out more about how the DVCC can help you and if you’d be a Right Fit for the DVCC, then please book a Right Fit phone call at www.theDVCC.com/signup. Have a great day; this is Nathan and Josh.
